Getting the best out of remarketing at Christmas

Why you should be using remarketing to gain online sales at Christmas…

For a lot of us, Christmas is undeniably the most wonderful time of the year; the perfect excuse to get into our pyjamas by 6pm, eat our body weight in carbs, and – of course – spend lots of money on extravagant gifts for pretty much everyone we’re ever met.

Only a matter of weeks away, most businesses are preparing for our busiest time of the year – stocking the shelves with rows and rows of mince pies (we love mince pies!) whilst subtly playing cheesy Christmas music to get everyone ‘in the mood’.

However, these days, selling at Christmas isn’t just about the atmosphere you create in your shop or premises, it’s about how you present yourself online. And where, in Europe, 19.3% of online sales made throughout the year happen at Christmas, you’d be mad not to want a piece of the online action!

So, how do you get the best out of Christmas sales online?

We think the answer is: remarketing.

What is remarketing?

When we talk about remarketing in the digital sense, we’re referring to the marketing of products or services to customers who have already bought or shown an interest in your business; from those who have got far enough on your website to explore specific items or already purchased something, to those who have put your items in their basket and stopped there.

Remarketing is simple, and can be a really effective way of increasing sales through your website.

Why is remarketing at Christmas effective?

We love remarketing at Christmas, and this is why…

Remarketing is data driven, cost-effective, and is an ideal way of doing the following:

• Upselling to customers who have already bought something – they bought this, so maybe they’d like this to go with it

• Reselling – they’ve bought this really cool product, maybe they’d like another one or something really similar

• Recapturing abandoned sales – they almost bought, maybe they just need a little more convincing

It can earn heaps of repeat custom whilst ensuring your products or services stay top of mind to those who have shown an active interest.

Let’s give you an example:

Your sister has been going on and on since September about wanting this beautiful red handbag she saw in a shop whilst on holiday in some far off land over the summer. You figure it’ll give you some well-earned brownie points if you get her one for Christmas, but you don’t have time to trawl the shops for anything remotely similar, so you search online.

Bingo! You’ve found it. You go to the product page, you click on all the lovely images of the good looking woman holding it stiffly over her shoulder against a brilliantly white background; you click to add it to your basket without looking at the price tag.

Ready to check out, you hit the perfectly placed ‘check out’ button, and… wow. It’s worth more than your car! As much as you love your sister (sometimes through gritted teeth!) you’re just not sure you can stretch, so you close the page and go back to whatever you were doing before, which probably involved cats and YouTube.

About 1.30 minutes later, you’re searching for the next cat video when you see a banner advert at the top of your video search: that same good looking woman, awkwardly holding that same bag, against the brilliantly white background… Maybe you can afford it after all. Hey, it’s Christmas, and it’ll make your sister happy – so you plunge in at the deep end and buy one.

Tips for remarketing at Christmas

Christmas is undeniably the season of giving, and when most people are more likely to spend more money, so if there’s any ideal time to try remarketing, we think this is it.

But, if you’ve never ventured into the wonderful world of remarketing, here are a few of our best tips to consider:

1. Use multiple platforms: it’s really tempting, especially if you’ve never done it before, to try remarketing out on one platform, whether Facebook or Google but, realistically, the best results come from remarketing on various platforms; don’t be afraid to follow people online and give them different adverts to engage with, they’ll feel differently on different days, and in different environments.

2. Get personal: for remarketing to be truly effective it HAS to be personal. It has to be relevant to what they’ve been engaging with on your website; if they’ve been looking at red handbags, there’s no use following them with an advert about steel-toed boots, but they may be interested in a matching scarf.

3. Highlight offers: Everyone loves a sale, especially at Christmas! And you never really know the specific reasons why people haven’t converted to a sale; maybe your product is out of their price range or they’re waiting until the end of the month when they have more money. So, if you hit them with 20% off, they may just go for it there and then.

Remarketing should be at the top of your list

When it comes to gaining repeat customers or closing the deal on those abandoned baskets, remarketing should always be top of your list when considering how to capture potential customers; those warmest to your business.

If you’d like some more guidance on how to remarketing effectively or you’d like to run a remarketing campaign, talk to us today.

Digital Marketing Consultancy

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